Elena Rybakina, World No. 2, outlines her aggressive strategy to defeat World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open 2026 women's singles final. Rybakina aims to control rallies and prevent Sabalenka from dictating play in their 18th career meeting. Despite battling a foot injury and tough earlier rounds, Rybakina is determined to perform her best against Sabalenka, who is seeking a historic third consecutive US Open title.
Phunchuk Stobdan's forte was candour and strong views on India's defence. Naturally, India's adversaries were in awe of him, fearing his views and unyielding stand on boundary issues, remembers Tarun Vijay.
The US-China rapprochement, however tenuous, is not without implications for India. Both China and Pakistan have become closer to the US, notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Three milestones in three days signal India's growing mastery in next-generation strategic technologies spanning nuclear deterrence, hypersonic propulsion and precision stand-off strike capability.
To get its act going in Myanmar, India would need very dynamic diplomacy and not the lazy all-eggs-in-one-basket approach, points out Subir Bhaumik.
'We want to become India's topmost integrated studio, working in different languages.'
Israel and the United States had a plan. Iran punched back. And now the Gulf is reeling, the world is beginning to feel the pain and, as on date, no one in Washington or Tel Aviv appears willing to admit that the punch has landed, notes Prem Panicker, continuing his must-read blog on the war in the Middle East.
'What's currently underway is not a 'reset'.' 'What needs to be arrived at is a new balance.'
Anticipating US action on tariffs, India seems to have made the first move by revamping its tariff structure by reducing the slabs to eight rates, points out Mukesh Butani.
'Tensions and dialogue are likely to go hand-in-hand with China.' 'The goal should be to cultivate power so that one can negotiate from a position of strength.'
'Disengagement is merely the first step in a lengthy process of arriving at a new normal along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and the entire land boundary.' 'The Indian government should insist on the restoration of the status quo ante in Eastern Ladakh.'
Meet India's top athletes at Olympics 2024.
India would not be seen to be anything but rude with the Pakistanis. In the big picture, who is the bigger adversary right now? Who is the bigger pain in the neck? And who is it that is keeping more than 3,000 km of our borders active, throwing our military posture and deployments into imbalance? asks Shekhar Gupta.
To emulate the West Indies of 1975 and Australia of 2003 and 2007, India must channel the same indomitable spirit in the final.
In the current complex and dynamic strategic environment, refining the IAF's strategy, building robust capabilities and developing a flexible mindset to "prosecute future wars" will prove decisive, the chief of air staff said.
Let's delve into the world of IPL 2024 and meet the captains who are ready to leave their mark on cricket's biggest stage.
'We are not going to be threatened by China neither are we going to threaten China.'
'India would not like to see Pakistani domination and tutelage of Afghanistan against Indian security and economic interests.'
The IAF chief also said Pakistan has become a pawn of Chinese policy and its dependence on China would increase further in future. He said India needs to understand the interplay of some major events in its vicinity that would impact the security scenario of the region.
'The Chinese have been moving in step by step; inch by inch for the last 40 years.'
'China is constantly probing India's weaknesses.' 'The challenge is to implement a strategy that will allow India to buy time, gather its strength, and eventually counter China,' recommends Harsh V Pant and Vinay Kaura.
'We are beginning to see that the rest of the world will not simply accept the domination of one power'
In fact, given the current tensions and massed troops on both sides, there is a danger that the LAC will become more like the Line of Control with Pakistan, a heavily fortified and strongly defended border where weapon fire exchanges regularly occur. Indeed, Stratfor Worldview research has listed a sharp increase in new Chinese facilities along the LAC in 2019-20.
'India should pledge that it will only target those provinces of Pakistan where nuclear weapons are located,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Only when China treats India as an equal can we consider them real friends.'
Given all the turbulence created by Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi's unexpected tirade against Saudi Arabia, it is likely to be business as usual between the two countries, albeit with a bit of caution on the part of both, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The failure to restructure our armed forces in line with contemporary needs 14 years after the Kargil war will impose strategic costs beyond just delays and scandals, says Nitin Pai
China has taken a position of non-acceptance and non-participation on the jurisdiction by the International Court of Arbitration in a case the Philippines has brought against China's claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, Abraham Denmark, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing.
The Al-Qaeda and its patrons seems to have outsourced, for the time being, the achieving of that larger, civilisationally retrograde goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle-East, to the ISIS. The symptoms are all similar; the difference lies only in the expressions, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
Making it easier to do business is a key element of our strategy, says Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.
Israel is determined to take the bilateral engagement to a different level that goes beyond defence hardware and intelligence software. Kanchan Gupta reports exclusively from Tel Aviv for Rediff.com
'The win in Assam is likely to have a ripple effect in other north-eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland which have been reluctant to embrace the BJP in the past,' says Nitin A Gokhale, the distinguished commentator on strategic affairs, who lived and reported from Assam between 1983 and 2006.
'Clearly, from the Indian viewpoint, the US retrenchment from Asia cannot be happening as good news.' 'The abandonment of the US' pivot to Asia exposes the US-Indian partnership to be a mere transactional relationship,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
The Bharatiya Janata Party's quest to strengthen its base in north India starts from Bihar, says Bharat Bhushan.
'The parallels between 1914 and 2014 are striking. The crumbling of American and Russian hegemony, the rise of powerful terrorist groups, ferment in the Middle East and the rise of China... These closely mirror the world of 1914,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
